The Question Bank

Graham Hughes & Julie GibbsDepartment of Sociology

University of Surrey

Research Methods Festival, July 2008

http://qb.soc.surrey.ac.uk

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Aims of the presentation

• The Question Bank – an introduction

• Navigation around Qb website

• Advantages and disadvantages of using available questions

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What is the Qb?

• A source of questionnaire materials for social researchers

• Key instruments from UK surveys• Freely available online (no registration

required)• There to help:

• Researchers developing new surveys• Secondary data analysts• Teachers and students of research methods

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What material do we hold?

– Questionnaires from important social surveys– Related methodological material– Commentary on topics and concepts– Bibliographies and links to other resources– NO DATA!

• Three main areas of the site;– Questionnaires– Topics– Resources

Structure of Questionnaires Section

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75

297

2085

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Questionnaires

• In PDF files to preserve original formats

• Separate file for each distinct instrument

• Bookmarked for easy navigation

• Related material, e.g. diaries, advance letters, leaflets for respondents

• Methodological information, e.g. dates of fieldwork, sampling procedures

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Topics

• 22 Key social science topic areas

• Linked to important surveys

• Commentary on social measurement in most of those areas

• Key Variables chapters

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Resources

• Bibliographies related to topic areas

• Links to related resources

• All about the QB! (User Guide)

• ONS Harmonisation Materials

• Data Collection Factsheets

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Searching the QB

• 68,000 pages

• 75 Survey Series

• 22 Topic Sections= A lot of material !!

Three strategies to find a question– Questionnaires menu (going directly to a relevant file)– Topics menu (to learn which surveys may be relevant)– The Search Engine (using key words)

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The Search Engine

– Indexes entire site everyday and creates a database for user to search

– Searches HTML and PDF documents– Highlights all keywords– Ranks according to relevance– Directs you to the first relevant page in each file

• Advanced search function– Search using “any”, “all” or “without” key words– Search for “exact phrases” (e.g. to find all examples

of a particular question)– Limit search to one survey series, and/or one year– Restrict search to just PDFs or just HTMLs

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Using the Qb: Summary

• Readily accessible bank of questions

• Flat structure to make comparisons easier

• Additional material to help clarify concepts

• Questions– Process of operationalisation already proved– Tried and tested in the field

• See showcards, advance letters etc.

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Reusing Available Questions

– Use ready-made questions in new combinations– Adapt existing questions to develop other concepts– Compare response category sets for some types of

question– Route to find relevant secondary data– Locate several datasets which include specific

variables of interest– Find out about a survey carried out in another

department or research area– Teaching students of research methods

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Advantages of Reusing Questions

• The questions are likely to be good indicators of the original measurement concept, and include codes

• In some cases you can see the response rates to the question (via Nesstar at ESDS or UK Data Archive)

• Savings in terms of;– Costs – no developers needed– Time – researching and testing– No pilot testing needed of individual questions (though still need

to pilot the whole questionnaire)

• Comparisons to other surveys in the field

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Disadvantages of Reusing Questions

• Might not find exactly what you need (or may measure wrong concept)

• Copyright issues (especially with ‘measurement instruments’)

• Need a very good understanding of the original context (takes time to read and find)

• Computer programmed questionnaires can be very complicated (routing etc.)

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Future of the Qb

• Survey Resources NetworkQuestion BankSurvey Link SchemeMethodological Research Projects

• Successful bid announcement expected August 2008

• Hand-over Qb from Surrey by 31st October 2008